EuroStrings is the first platform of European guitar festivals, led by Zagreb Guitar Festival and ever expanding with an initial 14 members’ festivals in 2018 and reaching 17 members’ festivals in 2021; with four Associate Festivals also added in 2021 as well as Affiliate Partners around the world. The project is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union and is the first guitar project ever to receive such funding.

EuroStrings Artists are a group of young professional guitarists, who are the laureates of the international competitions organised by the 17 EuroStrings platform members’ guitar festivals. They are invited to take part in the EuroStrings Exchange Programme, which is delivered through the EuroStrings Curriculum.

This concert is 50 minutes long, with no interval. Each EuroStrings Artist will play for 25 minutes. 

Cristina Galietto is a 20-year-old classical guitarist from Naples in Italy, whose guitar playing has taken her to many countries in Europe, where she has given concerts, participated in masterclasses with artists such as Aniello Desiderio and Carlo Marchione. She completed her studies at the Conservatory of Music ‘San Pietro a Majella’ of Naples, and the Conservatory of Music ‘Domenico Cimarosa’ in Avellino in the class of Lucio Matarazzo with honours, and a special mention, and is currently studying with Paolo Pegoraro and Lukasz Kuropaczewski at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst, in Graz. Her new album Avant l’Aube, released at the end of 2020 (Timespan recordings), features music by composers such as Joaquín Rodrigo, Domenico Scarlatti, and Alexis Rago, all of whom are representative of an intimate, delicate, and passionate musical feel – characteristics that stand out in her playing and to which her audience are drawn.

François-Xavier Dangremont began playing guitar at the Le Mans Conservatory in Brigitte Palisson’s class, with whom he obtained his Diplôme d’étude musicale (DEM). After having followed a specialised course with Tania Chagnot at Hay-les- Roses, he entered Judicaël Perroy’s class at the Pôle d’enseignement supérieur de Lille (ESMD). In 2017, he obtained his diplomas in musicology, performance (DNSPM) and pedagogy (DE). Eager to develop as an interpreter, he participated in several international competitions, winning First Prize at: the Concours International de Carry-le-Rouet in 2017, in France; Concurso Internacional de Guitarra ‘Ciudad de Coria’, in Spain in 2018; and at Kutna Hora International Biennial Guitar Competition, in Czechia in 2019; and Second Prize at: the Amarante International Guitar Competition, in 2018, in Portugal, the Alberto Ponce International Competition, in France, and the Forum Gitarre Wien International Competition, in Austria; as well as Third Prize at the Koblenz International Guitar Competition, in Germany.

Inspired as much by the great works of the repertoire as by the search for forgotten pieces, François-Xavier Dangremont performs early music such as Francesco da Milano, to Dionisio Aguado through to the twentieth-century composers such as Eduardo López-Chavarri and Sérgio Assad in his concerts. In 2020, he began teaching at the Conservatoire de Grenoble and also organises a guitar workshop at the Carlton Hotel in Lille, with Raphaël Feuillâtre and Antoine Fougeray.